SOMBER SERENITY is a rather new band in the scene, coming from Germany, and their style, as they call it themselves, is Dark Metal, but to give you an idea, it's somekind of hibrid made by the most dark and melancholic elements of Death, Doom and Black... but I think it's better to hear it directly from them...

How would you define your music, I think you call it Dark Metal, but what1s Dark metal for you?
The main reason for us to call our sound Dark Metal was that Dark Metal isn't a very limited genre, it is for us a melting pod between the "dark" Metal genres like Doom, Death, Black and Gothic Metal. In our eyes it is the best way to give our music a name and we don't think it is necessary to "create" a new Metal genre for us.

You released two demos and a promo some years ago. Did you play the same kind of music?
Yes, it was more or less the same style. These tapes were the first steps and there is a progression in our sound since that time. We think that we are still on the same musical path, but now everything works out much better than some years ago. One of our new songs has a folk touch, which is something we had never tried before. So it is not easy to say which new influences we will add to our sound, but the basic sound will stay more or less the same.

What do you think of the German Doom scene? Are there good bands?
In Germany there is no real Doom Metal scene, but there are some good German Doom Metal underground bands like GATHERING OF OBSCURITY, MIRROR OF DECEPTION or DEEP INSIDE MYSELF. The best thing in the German Doom Metal scene is, that there is no special "German" sound - nearly every band differs from the others and integrates some new/special elements.

Since your album was recorded more than one year ago, do you have new material? Will you release a new album soon?
We had many line-up problems during the last year, so we hadn't enough time to concentrate on new material. We have three new songs nearly finished and we have rewritten and rearranged the song "Cold Embrace" from our second demo. Right now we are recording a promo-CD with these new songs and we are working again on another new song. Maybe we will release a MCD this year, but there are no concrete plans, so it is also possible that we will wait a little bit longer and release a second full-lenght album.

You mix lots of different elements in your music, but what are your main influences? What are your favourite bands?
Our main influence is everydays life and of course sex, drugs and woods! We prefer bands like OPETH, ANATHEMA, HYPOCRISY, VINTERSORG, BATHORY, MY DYING BRIDE etc but also some more untypical bands like ANTIMATTER, MERLONS, WUMPSCUT, THE CURE and DEAD CAN DANCE for example.

What happened with your first label? Was your album ever been released by that label?
At the time when we entered the studio to record "Singular" we had a verbal agreement with that label, but he didn't managed to pay us their part for the studio and we didn't get the signed contract. After we finished the recordings he phoned us, and said that he needed the master-tapes to produce the CDs, but it was clear for us, that we couldn't trust him and we would never send it to him. So the cooperation with that label came to an end before it really started.

And how are things going now? Are you happy with Medusa Productions?
Medusa Prod. is a very small label (they call themselves a promotion and distribution agency) but they are very dedicated to their bands and they help us alot with their contacts. They have made a good promotion for our album and that is really good for us, cause it is very hard in todays Metal underground to get some attention!

You have played with some big bands, but is there a band you would specially like to play with?
Two years ago we had the chance to play a gig with THE GATHERING and MY DYING BRIDE, because OPETH had to cancle this tour. And if I think about a band I would like to play with, it would be OPETH! So it is a little bit strange, that we had the chance to play as the opener instead of the band we want to play with. But don't get me wrong, I don't wan't to miss the experience to play with THE GATHERING and MY DYING BRIDE, because that was absolutelly great!

What has happened with your former singer? Is he still singing in your band? I think you have another singer, don't you?
Yes we have a new singer now, because the cooperation with Daniel didn't worked out anymore, so the best thing was to end this line-up of SOMBER SERENITY and continue with new members. Manuel Iosca, who was our bass-player on our CD left us early last year, too. Now we have three new members: Michael Knöringer is the new singer, and with Arpad Jakab on bass and Christian Löbering on guitars we have completed our line-up.

Thanks a lot, would you like to say anything else?
We want to say thanx for this interview! Feel free to get in contact with us! Contact us at: www.somberserenity.de or www.dragondesign666.de (the website from Dragon Design and Medusa Productions). Stefan Botz / Brucknerstraße 11 / 81677 München / Germany.

Toni 

www.xtreemmusic.com